144 



^^^ PISCES, 



ToXOTESj Cuv. 

 The body short and compressed; the dorsal placed on the last half 

 of the body, with very stout spines, the soft part, as well as that of 

 the anal which corresponds to it, scaly; the snout depressed, short; 

 lower jaw projecting beyond the upper one; the small crowded teeth 

 very short in both jaws, the extremity of the vomer, palatines, ptery- 

 goids, and on the tongue; six rays in the branchis, inferior edge of 

 the mfra-orbital and preoperculum, finely serrate. Their stomach 

 IS wide and short, with twelve caecal appendages to the pylorus; 

 natatory bladder, large and thin. 



The species known, Toxotes jamlator, Cuv.; Labmsjaculator, 

 Shaw, vol. IV, part II, p. 485, pi. 68,(1) is celebrated for the 

 same faculty that distinguishes the Chxt. rostratus. By spurt- 

 ing drops of water on insects which frequent aquatic plants, 

 they are beaten down and brought within its reach. It can 

 force the water to a height of three or four feet, and rarely 

 misses its aim. 



FAMILY VII. 



SCOMBEROIDES. 



Our seventh family is composed of a multitude of fishes with 

 small scales, a smooth body, numerous csBca frequently united 

 in clusters, and whose tail and caudal fin in particular are ex- 

 trismely powerful. 



This family is of the greatest utility to man, by the size and 

 flavour of its species, and their inexhaustible reproduction 

 which brings them periodically into the same latitudes, where 

 they constitute the object of the most extensive fisheries. 



Scomber, Lin. 

 The first dorsal entire, while, an the contrary, the last rays of the 

 second, as well as those of the anal which correspond to them, are 



(1) It is also tlie Scarus SMosseri, Gm., Lacep. and Shaw, the Scise7ia jamla- 

 Ma; of Bonnaterre, the La^e sagittaire of Lacep., and the Coius chatareus of 

 Buchanan. 



